Friday, May 16, 2008

Sex and Drugs and guys who wear Prada with their dresses...

The Pope recently came out and says that sex can be like a drug.

I find it kind of amusing, to be honest, but I guess I should be used to it by now - religious leaders talking at length about things of which they presumably have no experience, as though they knew exactly what they were talking about (what God thinks about playing video games, what God thinks about pollution, what God thinks about who should be President...).

The Pope's statement brings to mind a vision of some really great parties at the Vatican involving snorting cocaine off trays on the heads of dwarves while they fiddle with... but you know, like the parties they're always having. Apparently.

But rather than a long diatribe, I'm going to leave you with a little bit of Blackadder, from season 1 (the season where Edmund Blackadder and Percy are in the last days of pre-Tudor England). Richard Curtis says it better than I could.

Percy: You know, they do say that the Infanta’s eyes are more beautiful than the famous Stone of Galveston.
Blackadder: Mm? ... What?
Percy: The famous Stone of Galveston, My Lord.
Blackadder: And what’s that, exactly?
Percy: “Well, it’s a famous blue stone, and it comes... from Galveston.”
Blackadder: “I see. And what about it?”
Percy: “Well, My Lord, the Infanta’s eyes are bluer than it, for a start.”
Blackadder: “I see. And have you ever seen this stone?”
Percy: “No, not as such, My Lord, but I know a couple of people who have, and they say it’s very, very blue indeed.”
Blackadder: “And have these people seen the Infanta’s eyes?”
Percy: “No, I shouldn’t think so, My Lord.”
Blackadder: “And neither have you, presumably.”
Percy: “No, My Lord.”
Blackadder: “So, what you’re telling me, Percy, is that something you have never seen is slightly less blue than something else... you have never seen.”

2 comments:

Dana Hunter said...

Blackadder! Sharpest wit evah! Excellent juxtaposition you have here, my dear. ;-)

And another Brit has a relevant comment:

Tell me I'm a sinner
Well I got news for you
I spoke to God this morning
And he don't like you.

Ozzy, baby, yeah! I used to want to play that song to every pedantic bugger who informed me of what God thought of me. Now, of course, I find Blackadder's exchange more incisive, but alas, many of the folks who mindlessly spout what their preacher/the Bible told them aren't sharp enough to understand.

Which begs the question: is rapier wit wasted on the witless?

Efrique said...

Yeah, though in series 1 he's mostly a dork with occasional bouts of wit.

In series 2 and later Richard Curtis worked with Ben Elton, and to give the character more long-term-watchability they played up the wit much more heavily, and made him less of a loser.